Document Retention

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Author Message brett wilbur (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2013 - 02:26 pm:    My firm is reviewing our doucment retention policy. We are trying to decide if it is necessary to keep shop drawings and samples (bricks, tiles, etc.) I found this document on AIA website but it only says to keep records of the submittal, not neceeaariy the submittal itself. Just not clear enough. http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab086366.pdf Does anyone have a good grasp of this legally and professionally? Ellis C. Whitby, PE, CSI, AIA, LEED® AP Senior Member Username: ecwhitby Post Number: 170 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2013 - 04:01 pm:    It is my understanding that the submittals themselves ARE part of the “submittal records”. I have always kept both the submittals, and the submittal logs (recording when each was received, returned, action, etc.). The various firms I have worked with have maintained different practices as to how long to keep these records. That is a legal decision in the end since it depends upon the statute of limitations in each jurisdiction and insurance requirements. Ellis C. Whitby, PE, CSI, AIA, LEED® AP Senior Member Username: ecwhitby Post Number: 171 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2013 - 04:07 pm:    Also, the AIA document you referenced specoficaly lists "Shop Drawings" as being retained for a "SSR" period (page 453). Elsewhere SSR is defined: "SSR signifies a period for initial retention equal to the applicable state statute of repose period. This may be followed by a secondary process to select records for a historical archive." This all appears pretty clear. Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wayne_yancey Post Number: 553 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2013 - 04:45 pm:    There are two statues in place in the state of Washington Statute of Repose (6 years) and Statute of Limitations (3 years). Each state has it's own time limits. Statute of Repose: Statutes of repose bar actions against architects and engineers after a specified period of time following the completion of services or the substantial completion of construction. Statute of Limitations: Statutes of limitations bar actions against architects and engineers after a specified period of time following an injury or discovery of a deficiency. It is important to have both a statute of repose and a statute of limitations. Without a statute of repose, a design professional’s exposure to a claim could theoretically run indefinitely, since an injury or the discovery of a deficiency could occur at any time. Statutes of repose and limitations work together to limit the total period of time during which the architect or engineer is exposed to liability. Nathan Woods, CSI, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 502 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2013 - 05:13 pm:    I am not a lawyer, but you've got four factors here to deal with: 1. State law. What is your Statute of Limitations say for your area? 2. Insurance. What does your E&O carrier say? 3. Risk: What kind of projects do you have, and are you likely to get that "invitation" to come back to the table years later. 4. Repeat work on the same site? My office does a lot of small projects for large clients on existing campuses, and having access to the previous submittals is a huge help, regardless of liability or law. Having said all that, on most of our projects, after a few years, and sometimes right after project completion, we make our physical submittals available to the Owner. If they don't want them, we pitch them. They are not contract documents, and while often used in Discovery during litigation in general practice, it is not essential for us to keep due to the nature of our projects.... plus, 95% of the submittals are all electronic these days anyway. ken hercenberg Senior Member Username: khercenberg Post Number: 398 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2013 - 05:41 pm:    I'm with Nathan on this one. I like having access to the information contained in submittals since we often don't get what we specify. When looking at photos of completed projects, it's nice to be able to tell designers where to go... I mean to find the information. Now that just about all our submittals come in the form of PDF they'll never go away since we have backups of backups. Of course finding anything useful in all that mess may be another problem. Typically Owners should receive record copies of the submittals so I can't imagine that they need ours. Most firms I've worked with made a point of pitching everything as soon as possible (based on above-mentioned statutes). One tried to keep everything in storage bins (EZ Storage type place) rather than paying an archiving warehouse (Iron Mountain type place). I presume that stuff ended up on Pawn Stars after the firm went out of business. I've worked at firms that truly archived everything pertaining to each project, a monumental hassle but incredibly useful during lawsuits (especially ones where the Statutes of Repose and Limitations don't apply, such as when there is significant injury or fatality due to non-compliance with Codes). Steven Bruneel, AIA, CSI-CDT, LEED-AP, EDAC Senior Member Username: redseca2 Post Number: 378 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2013 - 07:17 pm:    Our legal council has instructed us to keep liability related documents for 10 years, which is intended to include both the "statute of limitations" period for the client to become aware of a liability issue and the time period they then have to make a claim. In addition to the project record documents, they also request us to keep Shop Drawings, RFI's, and Substitution Requests that may modify the contract documents. We have a totally separate design archive for all the pretty renderings and such. Outside of the accounting department, no effort is made to save the financial history of the project. John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 1473 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Friday, January 04, 2013 - 12:19 pm:    Strangly, in each of the four or five places I worked, sample submittals were never retained along with the paper (and now electronic) ones. Management just couldn't see that they were equal to the paper in terms of being a record. I have also been told by attorneys that one important component of a records-retention policy is that, whatever it is, it should be regularly and consistently followed. If many project records are retained longer than planned, but one project has records disposed of on time, that could be construed against you in court for that project. But then, I'm not a lawyer. Temwani CM (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - 03:34 am:    [Note, while I posted this question, it probably originated in England due to the Quantity Surveyor activities. Colin] Our film has just finished compilation of a bid documentation for a building construction project for which we are to provide complete QS services. However the deliverables did not spell out the delivery form of the Bid documents. Common practice is that a hard and an electronic are submitted. Following the clients representative correspondence prior to submission, it appeared that the client is likely terminate our service agreement and manage the contract in house. We locked our documents so that they would only serve the purpose (bidding) but not for the client representative to work with them in the later project stages. Our suspicions are now vindicated by the client pronouncing that our fee will be withheld if we do not provide the password because he wants to devise contract administration worksheets. Can any one who has come across such a situation share notes on how they resolved their issue. Did we depart from our QS service agreement by locking the documents? I believe we did not because our commission did not entail providing a template nor provide only pre-contract services. The copyright clause give rights to client for duplication and disposition. My take is that these rights are not for any future use of documents in a similar project OR weapon to terminate our service agreement as has been categorically indicated.